Lompoc
"Lompoc is located on scenic Pacific Coast Highway (California Hwy 1) and Highway 246, 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, 155 miles northwest of Los Angeles and 270 miles southeast of San Francisco.
The Lompoc Valley is part of the Central California region. Rolling hills surround the Valley in the north, south and east. The level Valley is open at its western end to the Pacific Coast Shoreline. The Pacific Ocean is only 9 miles from downtown Lompoc. The Santa Ynez River (dry most of the year) runs east to west through the Valley while Burton Mesa, a chaparral forest with sandy soil, lies to the north. The hills to the south are mined for diatomaceous (fossil) earth."
"The first settlers in the Lompoc Valley were the Chumash Indians. The Chumash and their predecessors lived in this region for nearly 10,000 years prior to European influence. Lompoc is a Chumash word meaning land of many lakes - And it's pronounced LOM-POKE, never Lom-pock!
Chumash sites, and more recent history, are captured in the Lompoc Museum in downtown Lompoc.The establishment of La Purisima Mission in 1787 marked the earliest European settlement of the Lompoc Valley. The restored mission is now a State Historic Park.
The Lompoc Valley Land Company was formed and incorporated in August of 1874. The Company under took the settlement of Lompoc Valley as a temperance colony on existing Mexican rancho lands which were purchased from the owners for $500,000. The colony was incorporated as a City on August 13, 1888.
Early Lompoc was essentially agricultural, but the community economic and labor base grew and diversified. The growth and diversification of Lompoc was due in part to the establishment and growth of Camp Cooke Army Base, now Vandenberg Air Force Base. The population of the Lompoc Valley soared from 6,665 in 1957 to over 58,301 in 2002.
In the coming years, the community expects to continue to grow and diversify, while retaining the rich heritage and values characteristic of early Lompoc."